Manchester Fruit arid Vegetable Markets. 
483 
336,565 bushels of apples, and from Canada 44,295 bushels. I 
cannot give last year's importation, but I know it was much in 
excess of 1877. 
This market also receives large quantities of apples from 
Belgium, in casks Avhich contain about 4 cwt., and last year 
they were brought from Antwerp to Goole for ninepence per 
cask ; conveying them from Goole to Manchester cost 15s. lOd. 
per ton. Probably the growers of the common sorts of culinary 
apples in Lancashire and Cheshire would find their account in 
superseding them with raspberries, which always command a 
good price, and which will never be subject to the competition 
of foreigners, owing, from their soft nature, to the difficulty of 
transit. 
Excellent pears are imported from France and Jersey. 
French-grown strawberries now reach our markets before the 
English are ready ; they are shipped from Brest in small boxes. 
About 7000 per week came to Manchester for three weeks this 
year. They are followed by large supplies from Cornwall, 
Worcestershire, Kent, and Cheshire, in the order named, and 
lastly from Scotland. Upwards of 3000 packages of this -fruit 
were disposed of by one salesman one day this year, the cost 
of carriage by railway for which was between 60/. and 70Z. 
The first cherries also come from France. It takes three 
days from their starting to their delivery here, consequently 
considerable loss is occasionally experienced from their changed 
condition. Ripe fruit put on the railway at mid-day in Corn- 
wall is delivered here early next morning. Put upon the rail- 
way in Kent or Worcestershire at five o'clock in the evening, it 
reaches Manchester by three on the following morning. This 
is a splendid service, and leaves nothing to be desired. When 
we consider that these fruits are gathered one day and sold over 
the retail counter to consumers before the ordinary dinner-time 
on the next, 250 miles away, it must be allowed that the acme 
of accommodation has been reached. It takes a longer time for 
carts to reach the market from the distant parts of the adjoining 
county of Chester. 
Vast quantities of currants are sent here from Kent ; 20 tons 
have been sold in one hand in one day. Gooseberries are 
received from Worcestershire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, and 
the north-west of Lancashire. From the first and last-named 
places they are not marketed until ripe : from the other two 
they are stript from the trees in a green and hard state, and 
come to market in sacks like grain. The neighbourhood ol 
Preston, in this county, is celebrated for the excellence of its 
gooseberries. 
The trade in German bilberries is an important one, about 
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